


the Holidays

by FIPindustries



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-18
Updated: 2016-11-18
Packaged: 2018-08-31 16:30:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8585701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FIPindustries/pseuds/FIPindustries
Summary: the story of a couple





	

It is sad for us to say that the children of the Holidays were not too fond of their parents in their youth. As of today you could ask either twin what they thought of their parents and they would answer that their younger years had been complicated and that their relationship hadn't been the best, they would go on in tirades about how their parents never quite knew how to treat their children and that while as of today their relationships were candid enough there was still a lot of unresolved baggage originating on a sordid past. This all came, as all family feuds tend to come, from misunderstandings and miscommunication.

If someone were to describe the Holidays, the most apt comparison would be that of a reverse Adams family. Entirely too normal and way too austere and distant. But the one aspect in which they were similar to Morticia and Gomez Adams was in their profound, undeniable, almost codependent love for each other. Vanessa Holiday was, before marriage, an eccentric socialite, who used her excesses to cover a deeply miserable  person to whom all taste or succor in life was denied by virtue of the nature of her brain. Product of a gregarious and candid family, her inability to experience the glee that apparently was natural too all her peers gave her feelings of deep inadequacy and soon in her life she learned to use the mask of a smiler, the voice of a laugher and the dressing of a provocative clown. 

Whereas on the other side John Holiday was a dutiful British son who grew into a tall and proper soldier. Many of his so called friends declared him as more machine than man and he won the nickname of "the clockwork soldier" on the field. The utmost follower of grooming standards either on the barracks or the trenches. There was no such thing as a questionable order or a delayed tea for him. Yet this was not accompanied by the implied pride or posh attitude that one might expect from such behavior. There was no noblesse oblige to him, no upturned nose, no upper crust affectation. He was a hollow caricature of a British man, a checklist without none of the feeling behind. What had to be understood of Mr. Holiday was that he did the things he did not because he believed in the power of following the rules or a respect for tradition. He did those things because what else was there to do but what people tell you to do? to many he would have been considered an empty husk, he lacked internal motivation, he understood, without the angst, without the brooding, the dread or the nihilism, that life was utterly meaningless. So why NOT follow the rules? he did what he was told because to him the alternative would have been to do nothing.

So when young Mr. Holiday came back from war everyone asked him when he was going to get a Missus and thus he picked the first Miss he found at the first party he assisted. She was a semi popular painter who had fame of peculiar and wild, characteristics to which he was absolutely indifferent, instead what he saw on that young lady was the simple evident truth that everyone else missed because clearly someone as crazy as her could never be like that. He saw that she detested her paintings. Every comment about them, she spat it like old tobacco, every praise was one more dagger on her back. The soft caressing of the canvas when presenting her creations was hiding fingernails aching to tear the cloth to shreds and burn the oils to cinder. In seeing her he understood for the first time what it was to desire freedom from obligations. He had failed to catch this of the battlefield, because the crying children who wished to return home from war were cowards who didn't understand that death and pain can happen anywhere and if they were to experience them they might as well do it in the name of their country. But there, in the midst of the banalities of the world of art, surrounded by critics and intellectuals, by pointless champagne and self indulgent cigars, he saw that woman and saw a dead soul whom people for some reason couldn't leave alone to peacefully rot in her tomb. Why her? what about all that was just described called to him? we're not sure. But he observed all of that, this much we know because he recorded it in his journals. And whilst all these observations are well documented it is still uncertain why these characteristics called his attention.

Of what we are sure is why Vivian Holiday responded to the attentions of John Holiday in kind. She saw in that man without passion or imagination someone to whom she didn't have to pretend. Someone she could be as dead and miserable as she pleased and he wouldn't be put out by it. She saw a man who didn't need her to be the shining source of magic and love and understanding that was expected of her gender, someone who didn't need her to be happy, to be warm or to even be there at all. She once wrote in a letter that was never sent "...for everything else, these people want to see a blooming flower in me, but that man...i could be as dead as a desert and he probably wouldn't notice...i think i could truly die in our bed and he would get up and carry on with his day like nothing happened, i guess it might be melodramatic but i can't deny there is something romantic in knowing you found someone you can die with..."

Marriage was quick, the wedding discreet and the families (specially the bride's) were disappointed. They migrated to America and never even once established contact with the old world again.

Now this all might give an indication as to why they were not the most apt couple to raise children. And yet precautions back then were much less effective than they are today, and abortion much more dangerous and Vivian saw herself pregnant with twins and John encumbered by bills. Truth be told they were not monsters and they understood that raising a child is a delicate matter that has to be handled with love and care. We'll be charitable: they did their best. But warmth was just not a part of these people and for them "the best" meant sticking to the most traditional of family values. Merriment while never prohibited was not encouraged by a mother who had been forced to laugh and make other people laugh for most of her life, and disobedience while never excessively punished was neither tolerated by a man who failed to grasp the idea that the orders from a caring father could be resented. And finally Love, while never outright denied, was not immediately apparent for a pair of kids who felt much more care from strangers than from their own parents. 

These methods created two very different people, Mortimer and Susan, the Holiday twins. 

* * *

 

Let's begin by describing the young Mortimer. An introverted kid, he quickly knew himself smarter than his peers and thus sought the acknowledgement of his wisdom by his progenitors. Little did he know that he was asking water from a well that, while not entirely dry, it wasn't overflowing either. And this was not sufficient for a child, he wanted the encouragement and above else the praise he thought he was due. And when he didn't get it he rebelled. Now two things have to be explained, first that Mortimer was not a boisterous person, he wasn't che Guevara, he was a nerd who only disobeyed the rules when they didn't suit him but when they hurt others and left him undisturbed he was obedient and respectful of status quo to a fault. Second, as was previously explained, he was raised in "traditional family values" and these values included religion. It's easy to deduce from all of this the venue that Mortimer's little acts of petty rebelliousness took. If his parents were not going to realize how smart he was he was going to prove how dumb they were instead, and what kind of idiot believes in a magic benevolent man in the sky anyway? What Mortimer failed to understand for all his wits was that, much like people had theorized of philosophical Zombies, the Holiday marriage was composed of philosophical Catholics. They may perform all the actions of a believer, but there was no real belief there to be challenged. And sure Mortimer got chastised for disrespecting church and Christ but the outrage came from the act being improper rather than from actual indignation in the face of blasphemy. As the years went by Mortimer grew more sullen and introverted and once he reached the 17 years of age he read "the catcher in the rye", classified his parents as phonies and moved on with his life.

Susan on the other hand was far more outgoing and lively. She was a handful for her parents as much as a cherub might be to a couple of vampires. She turned on their values much faster and with much much more feistiness than her brother ever did. She shone light were the was only darkness, she brought noise and merriment, she exuded joy and painted her house with all the colors of the rainbow. This all proved to be pointless. However bright the stars may shine they'll never overcome the cold and vast emptiness of space. Her parents were not recipients waiting to be filled, they were voids, caverns without echo. Susan took this discovery much harder than her brother and lashed out accordingly. She decided to be everything, vegan, hare krishna, punk, hippie, new age, promiscuous, emo, goth, nerd, valley girl, lesbian, god bad and everything in between. She worshiped every god that was not her parents, she fought for every cause that contradicted her parents values and she believed it even. But none of this got an answer as well, at least not until she found out about her mother's past. She saw the old news articles and found the old forgotten photos that depicted a vigorous and jubilant female artist in the prim of her life and when she looked again at the current person who claimed to be her mother she saw a fire that was snuffed out, a prisoner captured by an orthodox white man with a stick up his ass. For once her rage was truly righteous and not merely a response to her parents attitude. She went and confronted her mother about this. At the time Vivian Holiday was working as a secretary to her husband, she worked at home and her job consisted mostly of keeping his schedules and papers straight, to keep track of all of this she recorded instructions that John was to listen to and obey through out the day, he found he was more efficient when following the orders of someone else than when operating on self determination. It was because of this that we were able to listen to the actual dialog that took place and we transcribed it here as follows:

" ***sounds of Susan Holiday entering the room and saying something to Vivian Holiday, she is too far from the mic to record properly***

_'please do not disturb me right this moment, i am terribly busy and i simply can not...'_

***Susan interrupts saying something***

_'is that so...?'_

***Susan goes on for a while, getting more and more loud, at one point the words "is not fair" and "you deserve better" are recorded***

_'i see, well, while i do appreciate sharing these concerns about my well being i assure you...'_

***Susan interrupts again***

_'young lady...'_

***Another interruption***

_'young lady, please, i...'_

***The interruptions are getting louder***

_'Young. Lady.'_

***at this point Susan is yelling, the words "that pig did this to you" can be heard***

_'ENOUGH!, i will not tolerate you speaking like that about your father, to you, teenager that you are, that man may be a tyrant but let me remind you young lady that all you know about me and him is what happened after you came out of my womb! so i will excuse you believing that i'm some sort of strumpet that used to be a free spirit on her youth but who was sadly incarcerated and tamed into a doting housewife, because i care nothing for what you think of my character, but i will not allow you to slander and smear the name of the man i love!'_

***Susan tries to interject***

_'you know nothing about what he did for me, of the ways in which he saved me or the kind of person i truly was before meeting him, so, i implore, do not be so crass as to make assumptions and speak ill of subjects you are entirely too ignorant about. Now you may leave this room without saying another word and i'll do my best to forget about your opinions on these matters and i recommend you to do as much if you know whats good for you young lady. good day.'_

**_*end recording*_ **

* * *

 

After this Susan kept her distance from her parents and moved with her brother to a different city as soon as they graduated from high school and started college. Now it shouldn't be presumed from this that the relationship between the twins was agreeable. Mortimer found Susan's activism irritating and tiresome, and Susan thought that Mortimer's apathy was irresponsible and harmful. The two brothers might have never reconciled if it were not for one person who showed up in their life at college, Mark Bloom.

Mark was a fat, cantankerous guy who, at his 20 years of age, believed to understand all there was to know about the way the world worked. He and Mortimer hit it off immediately. He and Susan not so much. He was the product of a happy family who's only blame might have been coddling their only son a little too much, molding a person who, when met with the harshness of the world, would have the self esteem and strength of character to fight hard to get the ideal world he was convinced was owed to him. Now, to him "fighting hard" was pretty much the same that it was to Susan, that is to say, loudly proclaim their opinions across the campus of their university. It didn't took long for them to engage each other into heated discussions about their different points of view. Discussions that would extend for hours, heated arguments that would call the attention of all the other students and would go down on history as some of the most entertaining spectacles to watch those years in college. The two declared each other to be everything that was wrong in the world and took it upon themselves to prove the other mistaken.

What has to be understood was that in any other circumstance, after a while of not making headway into changing someone else's mind, standard procedure is to write off the opponent as unsalvageable and move on. Yet here, neither wanted to give up on the other, the arguments would go on for days without seeming to make headway and they would not stop. They would seek each other, throw themselves at each other and never relent. Could it be that they didn't want to stop? could it be that this was the only way in which these two lonely people would get to experience emotional contact, however violent, with another person? maybe they saw in each other a release valve for their pent up frustrations with an unfair world. Maybe they understood they could lash out as much as they wanted because the other could take it. Perhaps they simply wanted to take the chance to flex their rhetorical muscles at full capacity without fear of social repercussion, their interactions were already as hostile as they could be so there was no fear of it ever getting worse, they were free to do to each other what they could never do to anyone else.

At first Mortimer was delighted to finally find someone he could share his grievances about his sibling with, but as time went on he started to get a little put off by the insistence of his friend to dwell in the subject. Sure, Susan could be a pain in the ass but to spend hours on end talking about her and having imaginary discussions with her when she was not around was a little too much for him. Years later Mark would share with us the last conversation the two friends had for a long time, transcribed here to the best of Mark's recollection:

Mark: *saying (sic) something about why Susan was a dripping boil is the ass of social progress, don't remember exactly what*

Mort: ok, Mark, i get it, can you shut up for two fucking seconds about my sister?

Mark: what's wrong i thought you hated her as much as i do

Mort: no, no, first of all, i don't "hate" her, she is annoying, yes, but i don't hate her, and, frankly dude, let's be real here, you don't hate her either

Mark: the hell you're talking about, she's a fucking c***, believe you me that i have nothing but hatred for that stupid...

Mort: oh look at you, tough guy saying harsh words, face it man, you fucking love being around her, come on,  you can't talk about anything else, you've been spending more time with her than with me!

Mark: what, are you jealous?

Mort: no, sick is what i am, sick of your retarded obsession with her, move the fuck on dude, get a life

Mark: yeah, maybe you should get a life too, in case you haven't noticed i'm your only friend

Mort: yeah? well maybe i will, asshole

Mark: yeah, you go and do that.

 

To this day Mark still regrets that conversation. One week later Susan put up a sign saying that she needed a new roommate, Mark went to the house she was renting right afterwards. He is still living there.

 

* * *

 

It is said that when two opposing equal forces meet each other they neutralize. What happened when Mark went to live with Susan was a slow process of sculpting, of erosion. Much like a blade is diminished as its sharpened, both of them molded the other into a more sophisticated form by virtue of butting heads. And in the end their flaws were blunted whilst their virtues were polished. They became gentler people, their reserves of bile and spite, though considerable were not infinite, and greater still was the motivation that pushed them to get it out and get rid of it all. Once they threw at each other everything they had to throw they could finally start to pick up the good things. He learned from her to be more considerate and empathetic for those who had it worse than him, and she learned from him to not get caught up in her own indignation and resentment towards those who didn't have it quite as bad. They grew up, as people does, Susan eventually managed to make her relation with her brother if not tight at least a little closer. As of today Mark and Susan are still friends, living together in the same house with a new friend called Emil. Emil is a story for another day, let it be sufficient to know that they are decently content with their lives and with each other's company.

And what of the Holiday marriage? what of the parents who created these people? what of the hollow humans who had no business raising kids? Well, they are still together, retired, older and with less fucks to give than ever before. They live in their house and quietly take care of each other, they do so because is what they did for forty years and by this point is a habit, they don't know what else they could do.The distance helped their children understand and reconcile with the kind of people that gave them life and they all get together every other holiday to remember that they are still a family. 

As a finishing note about these people we would like to put here one last interview from Mr. John Holiday, where he expresses his thoughts and feelings about his family and the life he led.

We couldn't get such interview.

the end.

_**The transcriptions here presented were done so with the permission of the involved parties. Some statements were slightly altered under petition of the people here depicted in order to preserve their privacy. We tried to preserve the feeling and intent of the original recordings. This was a non profit publication and it is prohibited the sale of this work. Thanks for reading.** _

 


End file.
